For Eternity Awaits Us
by dreamingthroughstarlight
Summary: A collection of my gift fics/random oneshots/in-the-mood productions in OTWD verse. I don't even know why it's rated T - but just in case :)
1. In Which Lugia Is A Watcher

**For the one hundredth reviewer of On The Wings of Death, fireflii! Apparently Lugia is very popular amongst you guys haha. I would have had this up sooner, but long story short, bad storm + open windows = rain inside house + destroyed modem = no internet**

* * *

><p>The Fletchinder finally went down from the stress of a combination of Leech Seed, Poison Powder and repeated Flashes. Lyra recalled him with a smile. "Good job, Fletchinder," she told the Poké Ball. "Floette, you're up!"<p>

Next to Lugia, Gold blinked. "And I thought she was going to use the Inkay," he said dryly. "Guess I still don't know her after all, do I?"

The two trainers were on extended vacation from the Indigo League, since it was just _so boring_ there now. Lugia knew that it was supposed to be more interesting, but the Elite Four did a good job of stopping trainers (although Lyra still insisted that the trainers ran away as soon as they saw Will) and the ones that did make it through usually met their defeat a la Meganium. It had been so quiet for so long that Lyra had decided to leave Johto on an extended vacation.

Which, in her world, apparently amounted to starting a journey all over again, which meant that the only two Pokémon she had brought were Meganium and Azumarill. And Lugia himself, although she had strongly stressed that he didn't have to come. In return, he strongly stressed that there would be plenty of upset trainers if she accidentally got herself killed by stroking an Espurr's ears.

That had been enough to secure his place on the trip, although in reality he was a free Pokémon – Lyra had freed him two days after he allowed himself to be caught by the Premier Ball – he did, after all, have duties to do. But when he wasn't busy he preferred to be around Lyra, if only because he had been searching far too long for a silver soul – which she had. The same applied to Ho-Oh, who at this precise moment was Arceus-knows-where. Probably in the Hall.

As the news started spreading that the Johto Champion was challenging Leader Ramos, more and more people began filing in. Gold groaned. The whole point was pretty much _not_ attracting attention – well, that was one thing they'd failed in.

Lugia used a brief Psychic to plant the suggestion that there was a horde of Axew in Azure Bay, causing another miniature stampede when trainers bolted to catch fake Axew. Gold sent him a look that plainly said _I know what you just did_. Lugia ignored him.

A while later, after the Jumpluff went down and Floette was dodging Sludge Bombs from the Weepinbell, another trainer slipped in, sitting down on a seat that was reasonably close to the battlefield and equally distant from him and Gold. Lugia blinked in surprise when his Psychic failed completely, dissipating before it went anywhere close. The new trainer didn't even seem to notice, focused on the battle before them.

Floette released a Misty Terrain, cloaking the field in soft pink that wasn't quite the same colour as Palkia's pearls, but still fairly close. Weepinbell spewed Acid in response, coating parts of the misted ground with purple. Floette floated away and spun to avoid the next shot of gunk.

Lugia took the time to observe the new trainer – dark haired, with just enough red scattered throughout to be considered as red highlights. From his position, he could just see a red T-shirt.

Below, Floette's eyes glowed with a Psychic. Before her new captures, Lyra had informed them (with Lugia as translator) that they would eventually be freed back into the wild and that she would not be keeping them. The Floette, like the Fletchinder, didn't care. Any chance was a chance to get stronger – that was simply how it worked.

The Weepinbell managed to spew Acid even as Floette sent it flying, the impact knocking the Weepinbell out. Floette didn't have the energy to duck the last piece of flying gloop, purple spreading over her flower in a swift knockout. Lyra recalled the Floette with a smile.

Ramos' Gogoat appeared last, and Lyra hesitated for a moment before releasing Meganium. So far, she had a Floette, a Fletchinder and an Inkay – but with Meganium and Azumarill it was a solid team nonetheless. Grass against Grass always led to interesting battles – he wondered what Lyra would do this time.

Gold picked up his Pokédex to scan the Gogoat, nodding in approval at what he found. He wasn't on a badge run and he wasn't starting a new journey, but being dragged along by Lyra had its inevitable effects. Three badges rested in his new badge case. Knowing that he wasn't with new Pokémon meant that each Gym Leader was perfectly happy to produce the much stronger ones, and Typhlosion for one certainly wasn't complaining about getting a decent workout again.

The strange trainer leaned forward a little, clearly taking notes for (presumably) his own battle against Ramos for the badge. Lugia swept another Psychic at him, just in case something was off the previous time. It bounced off and he dismissed it before the wave could hit a chair – the last thing he needed right now were questions on why a chair was levitating as he considered the strange trainer.

It definitely wasn't the result of being under a Dark-type move for prolonged periods of time – not many people were aware of the fact, but overexposure to Dark Pulse or Night Daze brought a little immunity to psychics the same way having a Trevenant use Forest's Curse on a person made being burned alive a thousand times more painful. Of course, there were always the detrimental effects of being under Dark Pulse 24/7 to consider. It wasn't a Dark-type Pokémon either doing the work. There was something strange about it all, and there was a memory hanging just out of reach that Lugia _knew_ was alarmingly relevant. If he could recall it, that was.

After a few minutes of the two Grass-types staring at each other (more or less), Meganium leapt into action. That was something that always surprised challengers – just _how fast_ Lyra's Meganium actually was. The bulky Pokémon certainly didn't looked fast. It just made the expressions all the more hilarious.

A Flash exploded from the petals around Meganium's neck, illuminating the entire arena. Gogoat flinched, turning away from the light. The Dragon Tail that followed was too fast for the Gogoat to respond. The Body Slam simply finished it off – Lugia was inclined to feel sorry for the Gogoat that just got sat on by a Meganium. Not that Gogoat as a species weren't heavy, but there was a reason overweight people weren't allowed on Gogoat taxis.

Lyra accepted the Plant Badge with a smile, sliding it into her new Badge case. Gold whooped and hollered out a 'Good job!' that was far too loud to be appropriate, not that he cared. The referee frowned at him. Gold gave him a winning smile in return, and Lugia shifted over one seat.

_I have no idea who this weirdo is._

Lyra grinned up at them, Meganium next to her. Lugia made his way out of the audience stands down into the Gym proper. "Congratulations," he said.

"Thanks, Lu-cian," she hastily amended, glancing around to make sure nobody caught her slip. Gold tripped his way down the stairs to join them.

"That was a really good battle," he said cheerfully. "But Typhlosion's going to wreck them all. Just watch and see."

Ramos only rolled his eyes. It was a little surprising – Ramos looked far too dignified to be rolling his eyes. Then again, Ho-Oh had always been the better judge of character out of the two of them. Supposedly Lugia had 'the emotional capacity of a Revival Herb'. He wasn't even going to respond to that.

Gold booked a full six-on-six for the afternoon – even though he continuously insisted that he wasn't trying to get badges, so far he wasn't doing a very good job of persuading _anyone_ – and the three of them departed from the Gym.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lugia noticed the strange trainer departing also.

~OoOoOoO~

Ho-Oh joined them for lunch by walking out of a dark alley and seamlessly matching their strides, easily making their party of three become four. She also informed him that Articuno's Snowpoint blizzards were tiring, which meant that Regigigas had put enough distance between himself and civilisation that major destruction wouldn't be _too_ much of an issue. The Colossal Pokémon was prone to… occasional acts of destruction when he woke up, which was part of the reason why he didn't stay in the Hall too often. Even though the Hall would probably be a lot easier to repair than Snowpoint City.

Gold blinked in surprise as he left, with the excuse of 'wandering around', but Lyra was a lot more open to the idea, with a cheerful "Return soon!" being called after him.

Ho-Oh only told him to avoid creating forty-day storms before returning to her Pinap Tart. How nice.

Lugia found the strange trainer easily enough, by spreading an area-wide Psychic and looking for the one black spot. He turned out to be sitting on an old stone wall, swinging his legs and talking to a Fletchinder, whose beady eyes constantly swept the entire area. A strong character, then – this Fletchinder was clearly a hunter, and a good one at that.

There wasn't really a particular spot to hide, so the Fletchinder spotted him pretty quickly, giving a chirp. _Stranger danger_ – a female, then.

To Lugia's surprise, the trainer laughed. "Stranger danger," he repeated. "Good one."

Very few people could understand Pokémon. The fact that this trainer had instantly narrowed Lugia's list. He stepped forward, and the trainer turned to meet him.

Vivid green eyes stared at him, taking in and assessing Lugia just as much as Lugia was assessing him. The colour scheme now was alarmingly familiar, if only he could figure it out – red and black, who wore red and black?

"Yveltal," he said aloud, and the trainer blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

_Now_ he got why there was a perpetual aura of Dark around him. "You're that kid," he recalled. "Harry Potter – Void now, right?"

"Harry Void, trainer," he agreed. "Uh, I can put in a pretty good guess, but how did you know me?"

Lugia shrugged. "He talks about you. Sometimes. When he's not busy arguing with Xerneas. I think he's trying to change Xerneas' mind. On what, we have no idea. Something about going somewhere." He held out his hand. "Lugia."

Harry's eyes grew wide – clearly, even though he had on some degree expected a legendary, he still wasn't prepared for it. "Um. Oh. Wow. As in, the guardian of the seas?"

_Guardian of the Waters_, his Fletchinder corrected. _You're getting there._

"The very same," Lugia agreed. "I suppose you know that to a psychic, you are literally a black hole. It's as if there is a permanent Dark Pulse suspended over your head."

Harry blinked. "Oh. Really? My _père_ just said that he put his mark on me so that wild Pokémon would try eat me or something, but do I _really_ stand out that badly to a Psychic?"

Lugia suppressed his smile at the term of endearment. There was just something insufferably _cute_ about the idea of Yveltal being a father – mainly because if anyone was going to be a father, it would have been Xerneas, not Yveltal. He had to wonder how precisely such a series of events could have occurred, and then the chances for it ever occurring again. Uxie would tell him a complicated number that amounted to practically zero, probably, and Palkia would just huff and inform him that she was closing down the rifts.

"Not unless we do mind-sweeps," Lugia told him. "But once we do, you stand out because there is nothing where you should be. I can't see why that should be a bad thing, though. It'll keep your thoughts safe, and it _should_ make you less resistant to manipulation. Nice Fletchinder, by the way. Gale Wings?"

The Fletchinder chirped in response. _Yep! Awesome, right?_ Harry rolled his eyes.

"She used to be a bit more serious around Camphrier Town. Then she basically single-handedly defeated Leader Korrina's team, and if that didn't boost her ego then I'm a Tamato Berry in disguise." Lugia's lips twitched at that.

"I'm sure Fletchinder is an admirable example of her species," he commented. The Fletchinder's eyes – sparkled? – glinted, and she voiced her agreement. Harry sighed.

"Sure, go and support the other team. You are _such_ a traitor, Fletchinder. Honestly."

"I suppose you're here for the Plant Badge." Lugia switched the subject before boy and bird had an argument on a wall. Harry nodded.

"Ramos is good – I've only watched so far, but his Jumpluff is actually really scary. I'm not surprised the woman's Fletchinder lost against it even with type advantages. Ramos isn't really the strength kind of trainer, he's more like the sneaky one with Toxic and Leech Seed who laughs at you because you never thought there were more way than one to use a move." He blinked, then flushed a little as he realised what he'd just said. "Uh, let's forget the fact that I just insinuated that the Gym Leader was sneaky."

"Good observational skills," was all that Lugia replied with. "Moltres would be proud."

"Moltres?"

"He's got the sharpest eyes out of the three birds I have the misfortune of watching over."

"Oh."

They fell into silence for a while before Harry's Holo Caster beeped. _This is the Coumarine Rangers Station. A sole Snover has been detected near Azure Bay. Should our team not get there in time, swimmers and beachgoers should be aware of the possibility of sudden rain. Warm sea air will melt the hail into water. Repeat: swimmers and beachgoers should be aware of the possibility of rain, not hail. This is the Coumarine Rangers Station; swimmers should be aware of the possibility of sudden rain. _

They both turned to look in the direction of Azure Bay. Wisps of white cloud were beginning to swirl together, turning darker and darker as they approached what would probably be the eye of whatever the Snow Warning could pull off in warm weather. A simple rainstorm, nothing more, and at the very least not quite at destructive as Zapdos' temper tantrum a few weeks ago.

_Ho-Oh's not going to be too pleased with this rainstorm. _

Harry was frowning. "Er, I should probably go. I'm not really sure what you legendaries do to avoid the rain, but I don't have any magical drying properties and until I do figure out how to stay dry in the rain I'll be taking shelter at the Pokémon Centre…" He trailed off. "Um, it was nice meeting you?" It came out as more of a question than a statement, not that Lugia particularly minded.

"It was nice to meet you," he said, inclining his head. "Best wishes until we meet again. I have no doubt that we will."

It was true. At the very least, opening the rift back to Harry's own world would probably take place in the Hall of Origin. Palkia would probably do it there just because she didn't want to spend _time_ getting to somewhere else. The situation with her and Dialga – well, _no_ was a good way to put it. It was not getting mentioned. It was never getting mentioned. That worked out to no Roars of Time or Spatial Rends, which worked out to relatively peaceful cohabitation.

Harry seemed a little surprised by that, but he nodded, giving a hesitant wave before he disappeared from view, the Fletchinder nestled snugly in his hair. Oh, definitely a good hunter, that one.

The Future Sight caught him just as Harry vanished from both his sight and the range of the passive psychic field always present around him. Lugia dropped onto the stone wall as images danced before his eyes, elaborate visions of all that could be. Any kind of looking into the future was difficult, the future could change so much with the actions of so little – _the Butterfree effect_ – so instead of seeing _one_ future, there were alternate timelines, streams where _this_ could have happened to lead to _that_, or _that_ could have happened to lead to _it_. It was imprecise, and it was the only way to glimpse what could be.

Future Sight at least had the advantage of sorting out what was unlikely and what was more likely. Out of the thousands of streams available for Harry – tumultuous times ahead, then, important decisions forked into two time streams to account for the possibilities and he had _thousands_ – several lead to doubtful conclusions, such as Harry sharing Candied Bluk with a grey-eyed boy while one of the famous composer Beethoven's pieces played in the background – the Umbreon Sonata, if he heard correctly. Another had piña coladas and a pineapple performing in a Musical while Harry looked on.

Lugia dismissed those as irrelevant. What did seem to be present in all the saner timelines, however – before they diverged in a hundred different ways, there were several timelines more-or-less identical up to a certain point that probably was an important event where Harry could change in a multitude of ways – was a graveyard, and what _looked_ like the horns of a Houndoom tilted upwards, catching the bluish light of a full moon.

Whatever could be said about Yveltal's parenting – although from what he was seeing, Harry clearly turned out alright so maybe Yveltal was actually good at parenting, who would have thought – clearly there were important decisions in his son's future. But things had a way of turning out right in the end, and Lugia wasn't the type of person to worry about alternate universes. He left that up to Palkia and Dialga.

"May the Star of Victory follow your steps, Harry Void," he murmured aloud. "And Jirachi smile upon you should you ever have dark days."

Any legendary could invoke another legendary. Whether or not the other legendary listened was fully dependent on how much they liked or disliked, respected or disrespected the other. Lugia wasn't on bad terms with anybody and definitely not with Victini, although Jirachi – well, that kind of depended on whether or not Jirachi would wake up from his 'nap' to listen.

He was confident that Harry would still be okay, whether or not Lugia's words were heeded, but extra blessings never hurt. Lugia rose from the wall.

Harry Void might have a possibly difficult future ahead of him, but Lugia didn't really want to get caught in the rain. Natural rainstorms inevitably attracted one of the storm legendaries, and – well, he didn't want to be around when they and Zygarde clashed. The green-and-black legendary was utterly terrifying when she was angry, and – well, he just didn't want to be caught up in her rage. Few walked out of it intact.

He turned and walked back into Coumarine City. Lyra would insist on watching Gold's match, after all, and Ho-Oh was bound to be there. Lugia just needed to figure out a plausible excuse to avoid her.

If there was such an excuse to be found at all.

* * *

><p><strong>I have the headcanon that Ho-Oh and Lugia are the kind of siblings who just try to stay out of each other's way as much as possible because even though they can stand each other without destroying half the world it's to both their mutual benefit if they just don't meet at all. I also have the headcanon that Zygarde is utterly terrifying if her domain (the environment) is under threat. As in, I-don't-care-how-many-resistances-or-immunities-you-have-a-localised-Draco-Meteor-will-still-smash-you-to-shreds terrifying. Because even Fairies will have some trouble recovering from being buried under ten tons of rock covered in draconic energy.<strong>

**I just prefer Gold to Ethan. Maybe it's because Ethan and Silver just sounds weird, while Gold and Silver matches. Let's just not ask about all the other Dex Holders. It gets complicated from there**

**~dreamingthroughstarlight**


	2. A Very Long Time Later

**I feel like I just wrote an epilogue instead of whatever this was meant to be (don't worry, this is never going to make it as an epilogue) but hey, it has something Christmassy in it. This has to be one of the shortest things I have written since... primary school, that's not for an assignment. Wow. *insert stunned expression***

**One century later...**

* * *

><p><strong>Hall of Origin<strong>

Before Yveltal had stumbled through Palkia's portal and ended up raising Harry Potter in two worlds, Christmas was an unknown in the Hall of Origin. Now, the lake sprites were levitating tinsel, Reshiram and Entei were sending Flamethrowers to increase the fire on the Yule log and Groudon and Kyogre had stopped arguing to put together a present for Rayquaza.

Just goes to show how much things could change in a century. Even if Rayquaza's present was guaranteed to be something he definitely wouldn't like.

It had been first introduced by an amused Xerneas and quickly spread throughout the ranks of pixies. After Diancie had commented that maybe it was what Delibird was created for, Mew had gone and picked up a bag of Delibird presents, flying around the Hall and lobbing them at everybody she could find. Explosions detonated everywhere until Giratina got fed up and marched Mew back to the Delibird she had 'borrowed' the bag from.

That didn't sound like the most ideal way to start a tradition, but it had somehow held. Now every December 25 someone – usually Mew – would go out and 'borrow' a Delibird bag to lob 'presents' at everyone. That was the first tradition.

The second tradition was when Uxie figured out that, by covering the room with tinsel, Mew would get distracted enough to forget to throw the faulty presents. A Dazzling Gleam on the tinsel further distracted the always-hyper Mew, allowing Uxie to slip away from the damaging presents unscathed. After that, everybody wanted Dazzling tinsel, and it became a tradition just like the Delibird presents. The downside was that Mew was developing a resistance to it. It had been nice while it lasted.

The Yule log was a reminder of the time Primal Groudon accidentally set an entire forest on fire the day before December 25. A furious Celebi dragged Kyogre all the way inland just to douse the flames, and, well, Kyogre was never one to miss out on taunting Groudon. The first time was the day after, where she had dumped a flaming log next to Groudon and informed him very nicely in a voice that promised death that if he ever did something so stupid again she would find a way to move Mt Pyre into the ocean. Maybe it was the utter seriousness in her voice, or maybe it was Rayquaza's eyes fixed on the pair, but Groudon didn't object. And then when another burning log appeared next year, and the year after that – well, it seemed strange not to have it after that.

The actual, non-Delibird-trapped presents started when Reshiram had taken a peek into the non-Pokémon universes and decided it was a nice novelty. Why he thought everlasting fire would be a good present for Shaymin, nobody knew, but one way or the other it worked out and became the newest end-of-year staple for the legendaries.

Sometimes it was nice to just take a break from watching over the world and relax instead. At least this century had been relatively peaceful compared to the last. The lack of villainous teams attempting one way or the other to destroy the world helped. Honestly, those teams never did their homework – it was as if they wanted to destroy the world and themselves along with it. They did realise they lived on the planet they were trying to destroy, right?

Although Dialga was predicting trouble again in the future – not completely Farfetch'd, since Jirachi was showing his first signs of movement again since – since the last time he went to sleep. Jirachi's millennium was approaching, and trouble _always_ plagued his one-week awakening. Three wishes could do a lot. Sure, he could still give a blessing while sound asleep, but _wishes_ – how people coveted those.

But that was the future, a tricky thing to predict at best. Future Sight only ever revealed so much. And until the future came along, they were content in the present.

Stability was rare and peace even rarer. That was natural for them, for this world. None of them would ever change it.

Cresselia smiled as she released a Swift to complete the Christmas tree.

Yes, for now – all was well.


	3. Xerneas (Accidentally) Starts A Cult

**A new instalment of For Eternity Awaits Us. Because it popped into my head. Also because it's really amusing to image Xerneas' reactions.**

**When you have a universe where the goal amongst all young children is to be a trainer, or Coordinator... well, it's only natural to have Pokémon dolls. Specifically, Legendary Pokémon dolls. To be the very best, after all. **

**It's just a shame they don't get the colours correct.**

* * *

><p><strong>Xerneas (Accidentally) Starts A Cult<strong>

It wasn't that Sinnoh was _bad_, or anything. It was just that… sometimes the people took it too far. They got carried away. And the result was this.

He stared at the doll. The doll stared back.

It wasn't even a good likeliness. In his stag form, he _wasn't that colour_. Even when Arceus had one day allowed all the Legendaries to see what their Shiny forms could have been like, he still wasn't that colour.

The doll was hot pink. He was dark blue.

...Why had they made him pink? Mew would have suited the colour so much better. Actually, Mew was pink, so scratch that.

But – _dear holy Arceus _did he hope Yveltal would never have the presence of mind to visit a Grand Festival. The one thing on his side was that his brother would not be caught dead visiting a Grand Festival. Then again, he wasn't really sure what had possessed him to the stalls either.

Maybe it was just that horrible doll. That had to be it.

Xerneas took a deep breath. Another. Then he closed his eyes and slowly moved away from the offending toy.

He got maybe ten steps away before bumping into someone. The perils of walking with eyes closed, naturally. How Uxie did it was still baffling everyone except the Lake Trio. Did area-wide Psychics actually reveal where people were?

He offered a hasty apology before continuing on his way, casting a net of Psychic to tell him more-or-less where people were so if he was moving backwards he could more-or-less avoid them. Hopefully.

Then, of course, the next Coordinator battle started. The Psychic went haywire as people stampeded towards the entrances of the arena. Just to avoid getting crushed, he allowed himself to be swept along with the wave of humans into the arena.

And it was only the first day. Preliminary battles, really. More contests, more ribbons, more trainers who preferred beauty to power.

Despite what everybody thought, Xerneas actually didn't enjoy Coordinator battles. He preferred outright battling. It was simpler, no holding back – unlike the Scyther dancing around the Jellicent floating on the arena. There was more finesse in a Coordinator battle, nobody would deny that, but there was just something about the raw power in proper battle that attracted him.

Also, the fact that it was possible to predict just about every move in a Coordinator fight made it distinctively boring. He found himself muttering their moves under his breath, analysing and critiquing the whole thing without a second thought. Consequently, he gained a lot of strange looks.

_The X-Scissor on the Bubble Beam is pretty enough for a Coordinator battle, but simple. Also, its weakness is that it brings the Scyther closer to the Jellicent. A Vacuum Wave would have worked better. Double Team-Agility is good, but the Jellicent is Ghost. It won't and can't be phased by a Double Team. Life energy is too specific and Jellicent in particular can easily detect that life energy. The only worse opponent would be Chandelure. There we go – that Water Pulse, spot on. Night Shade or Ominous Wind would have been better than that Sludge Wave, though. The Razor Wind is good, blows apart the sludge. Wait, what – _

_Why in the name of Entei would you use a Sunny Day?_ He barely managed to stop those words coming out of his mouth. Something told him the crowd would not have received it very well. Another quick Psychic-net, a little Dazzling Gleam from the opposite side of the arena and a Light Screen was enough to make him effectively vanish, and he quickly moved out of the arena before he _did_ accidentally say those words aloud and trigger some kind of mass audience hate.

Light Screen in place, he wandered around the stalls again, keeping well away from The Doll. In the process he found doll versions of the other legendaries. The most frustrating thing? They were all correctly coloured.

Could he go track down the toys' creator and demand a better colour palette for himself? Why did other legendaries get perfect colour palettes and he got – _hot pink_?

He asked a shopkeeper selling Dialga dolls that question. Maybe he should get a Dialga doll for Dialga. Or not. Palkia would laugh at Dialga for the next century, probably bring it up in every argument, and Dialga would eventually get frustrated enough to bend time and stop him from getting that doll. Possibly by blowing apart the entire stall and its surroundings with a Roar of Time. Yeah. Not good.

Also, the Flash Cannon would hurt.

On the other hand, a Mew doll might be a good idea. Enough to possibly stop her from nagging everyone and their Furfrou all the time.

"It's because we actually don't know Xerneas' colour," the shopkeeper was saying. "There are only old carvings and their colour has worn off over time, and there are no descriptions or anything. We only know his shape. And since there was an open market in girls' toys at the time, and the people making the dolls probably figured that Xerneas would appeal more to females – the whole death thing, you know, with his counterpart, it puts people off. Research was showing that pink and lavender toys were selling better with the age range being catered to, so they designed him hot pink and so far no professor has been saying any different so, yeah, they're hot pink."

Even though he _really_ didn't feel like it, he thanked the shopkeeper and left.

~OoOoOoO~

He stepped out of the portal – formed with Geomancy and a little bit of Secret Power – into a deserted part of Mt Coronet. Straight onto a thin ledge, in fact. With roughly carved stairs going up.

_Up_ was the summit of the mountain, and, if you knew where to find it and how to sing it into being, Spear Pillar and the Hall of Origin. Contrary to the legends, it wasn't necessary to possess an Azure Flute, not that such a flute even existed in the first place – Arceus _sucked_ at making loose ends. The Song – known instinctively by every legendary and heard only by a select few humans – was all that was needed to summon the stairs. It was just that human voices weren't really able to sing the Song – it was, as those who had heard it described it (all long dead) too high, or too beautiful, or too wild, or some other too that basically translated to "we can't sing this." Creativity at its finest.

There was no down. Only rough scratches in the rock indicating that a lot of someones had used Rock Climb. A simple Psychic turned the rock face into a perfect slide, which he promptly used to reach the lower floor of Mt Coronet.

A Magikarp broke the surface of a pool, gurgling softly at him. The plea was clear, the reason less so. Still, Xerneas obliged, Misty Terrain sweeping over the cavern. The Magikarp glowed with the telltale brightness of evolution.

Xerneas continued onwards, not really sure where he was going. At some point he decided the clumps of rock one had to climb over was frustrating enough to merit the change back to his normal form. Maybe if some Hiker saw him they could correct the hot pink doll issue.

He just knew he needed to walk it off. And maybe battle something. Not get caught, of course, but it would be fun (at least for him) to have a bit of a workout.

Aromatherapy, Misty Terrain and Heal Pulse combined revitalised every Pokémon on the lower floors. A good dozen Geodude evolved. A quick flash of Psyshock was enough to deter the Zubat, even if plenty still took the opportunity to evolve quicker, or maybe stronger.

A Feebas appeared in the water, staring at him with those wide eyes. A second later, it glowed with the energy of evolution, becoming sleek and serpentine. A Milotic broke the surface a while later, beauty and gratitude emanating from the sleek Pokémon.

When he was finished with the lower floor, he picked the stairs easiest to reach and kept on walking. Walking was good. Walking was calm.

A Psychic swept through the entire cave floor revealed the presence of maybe a dozen or so humans, and a quick mental sweep found them to be – holding delusions of a new world? That was interesting. The vague memory of Cyrus and Team Galactic resurfaced.

Psychic led him to stand facing directly across from them. Behind a rock face, that was. But Psychic did locate them to be standing on the other side of the rock face.

There was just the _minor_ problem of having a _rock face_ in the way.

He pulled back the Misty Terrain and the Aromatherapy, taking two steps back. Two Moonblasts made craters in the rock. Another Moonblast, and Psychic detected just how thin that wall was.

So did his ears, actually, because they picked up the sound of someone who was presumably the leader droning on and on about the problems with the world. Joy.

He charged down the entire thing with a Close Combat.

(Not like Mew or Arceus or anybody else with half a brain couldn't fix it anyway)

The wall broke, splintering around him; his charge slowed, the Fighting aura fading until he was standing in front of a Very Big Hole in the wall. The humans all turned and stared.

At least their leader had stopped talking. Now they were just engaged in a staring match.

Deciding to take the initiative, he promptly unleashed the strongest Psychic he could manage while simultaneously using Flash and Confide. The humans stumbled backwards from the sheer light he forced out, at which point he wiped their minds clean of anything to do with restarting the world but kept his image seared into them. And a name, of course; wouldn't do to have himself classed as a new species of Pokémon.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the last vestiges of his frustration burned out during the attack. While they were still processing their new memory loss, he formed another portal and returned to the Hall. Job done for the day.

Xerneas also made a resolution to keep everyone away from the Grand Festival for as long as he could without being suspected. Of course, the fact that the damn thing ran for a month would make it difficult, but he was definitely going to try.

(Two weeks later he returned to find that the colour palettes were correct again. He also found a new cult dedicated to him. It was made up of those people he'd wiped in Mt Coronet.)

(Thankfully, Cresselia was nice enough not to laugh when he told her this.)

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed that! I've got the next chapter of OTWD written out, it just needs a few edits (not particularly happy yet with the ending). Review, comment, favourite, suggest prompts, whatever. School, by the way, is stressful. I procrastinated on my homework doing this.<strong>

**Til next time**

**~dreamingthroughstarlight**


End file.
